We report theory and experiment on modes of propagating light waves in deposited semiconductor films. The modes are excited by a novel prism-film coupler which is also used for the measurement of their phase velocities. Up to 50% of the incident laser energy has been fed into a single mode of propagation. The positions and linewidths of the modes, the wave intensity inside the film, and a dramatic view of the mode spectrum displayed by the scattered light are discussed in detail.

The continued development of integrated optics is heavily dependent upon the availability of materials that are suitable for the construction of thin-film optical circuitry and devices. We report here an investigation of new films made by an rf discharge polymerization process of organic chemical monomers. We concentrate our discussion on films prepared from vinyltrimethylsilane and hexamethyldisilbxane. These films are smooth, tough, pinhole-free, transparent from 0.4 microm to 0.75 microm, and exhibit very low loss (<0.04 dB/cm) for light-wave propagation. More importantly, experiments demonstrate the possibility of controlling the refractive index of the films either by the mixing of the two monomers before deposition or by chemical treatment after the film is deposited. The use of the prism-film coupler for studying the refractive index of each material is discussed in detail.

We report optical second harmonic generation in form of coherent Cerenkov radiation. The fundamental wave at 1.06 μm propagates in a thin-film optical waveguide which is simply a ZnS film vacuum-deposited on a single-crystal ZnO substrate. The nonlinear polarization excited in the substrate has a phase velocity exceeding that of radiation propagating freely in the substrate material. It thus acts as the source of the observed Cerenkov radiation.

We report for the first time switching and modulation of light in a magneto-optic waveguide that is a single-crystal epitaxially grown iron-garnet film. These experiments involve the Faraday rotation of the magnetic film and the motion of magnetization in the plane of the film. We have modulated light from a 1.152-μm laser up to 80 MHz. We were also able to switch light between two waveguide modes by applying a magnetic field as small as 0.2 Oe.

We report a systematic study of the optoelectronic properties of ZnSe1−xTex alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy over the entire range of compositions. The band-gap energy as a function of the composition presents a minimum at x≂0.65. The main luminescence emission observed at 5 K becomes narrower and closer to the band-gap energy as we increase the Te content. The linewidth and the difference between the emission peak and band-gap energy decrease significantly with increasing x and present a break in the slope at x≂0.65.